


Bisexual

by arfrid



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Allusions to Runaway Max, Angst, Bisexual Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Bisexuality, Coming Out, Drunken Coming Out, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, I applaud you so much, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Max Mayfield and Robin Buckley, Max is drunk, Nate Walker - mentioned, One Shot, Robiiiin, Robin Buckley & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Friendship, Robin Buckley Acting As Maxine "Max" Mayfield's Parental Figure, Robin is an absolute mom/dad, Underage Drinking, at least her second one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:09:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28527498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arfrid/pseuds/arfrid
Summary: Robin finds Max drunk at a party. Under the unfortunate effects of drinking, Max reveals something particularly private.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Original Female Character(s), Robin Buckley & Maxine "Max" Mayfield
Comments: 7
Kudos: 49





	Bisexual

“Woo!” Comes a familiar voice that Robin would not expect at a party like this. “Fuck yeah!”

Robin immediately started looking for the source of the voice, and saw Max talking animatedly with an 18-year-old guy who was clearly interested in her. She was gesturing with her hands a lot, her eyes looked slightly glassy and dazed, but her smile was the biggest one Robin had seen the girl do. Ever.

The guy suggested something to her, and Max shrugged and started following him to another room.

“Oh, hell no.” Robin said. She wasn’t about to let a 15-year-old kid go into a room with a creep. She quickly walked up to the redhead and snatched her by the ruff like a kitten.

Max drunkenly exclaimed, “Robin!”, then giggled at something funny. 

“The hell, girl?” The guy said. “She was about to-”

“I know fully well what she was about to do.” She told him. “You’re a sicko for taking advantage of a drunk girl like that. Plus, she’s fifteen.”

The guy’s face lost it’s color. “Hey, girl, I didn’t know-”

“Scram!” Robin shouted. He yelped and ran out the house. Hopefully Robin scared him off.

“Rob. Hey, hey Robbie.” Max poked her in the ribs. “Rob, Robin, Rob, Rob-in.”

Ah yes. Her other problem. The reason she’d gone towards the sound in the first place.

She grunted and grabbed Max by the wrist, pulling her out the house.

As they got in Robin’s car (well, Robin helped Max get in the car), Robin paused before starting to drive.

“What. Is wrong with you.” Robin asked incredulously. Max shut up for a start, but then snorted and laughed loudly. “This isn’t funny, Max. Do you know what could have, would have happened if I hadn’t intervened?”

Max frowned, thinking, before shrugging and playing with the hem of her hoodie. Robin’s mind immediately went to the circumstances that would have definitely happened, had she not got in the way.

She hid her face in her hand and groaned. “Christ. Okay. Get your seatbelt on, we’re going to Steve’s place.”

“Why not yours?” Max asked curiously, sitting precariously in her seat. Jesus Christ, she was going to fall off at this rate. “Why Mama Steeb’s?”

Max giggled at Steve’s nickname, and Robin’s mouth twitched upwards.

“Because,” Robin started, sounding like a parent talking to a toddler. “Steve’ll know what to do with your ass. I cannot handle this.”

Max frowned again, straightening. “Wasn’t he at the party too?” She asked, her vowels slurring together. Max shook her head again, seemingly trying to be sober.

Which wasn’t fooling anyone.

But Robin’s mind wasn’t on that. She had seen Steve, or ‘Steeb’, at the party, which meant – oh, Jesus Christ – she would have to look after Max until she was sober again.

Robin groaned with the power of a thousand suns. She looked over at Max, who was counting the stars, happily oblivious. Robin smiled faintly. 

Nowadays, you could never see Max laughing. It was always sunken eyes and scowls and, “Go away, I’m busy” and fake smile and fake laughs and lounging in the Staff Room of Family Video and sitting by the Quarry, alone and presumably drinking some Coke, stolen or provided by/from Steve.

In fact, Robin had only seen Max truly happy once or twice. The first time, when Max first hung out at Scoops Ahoy, talking a tall dark-skinned boy and blushing faintly and scrunching her nose. The second was when she hung out with Steve, ruffling each other’s hair and Steve invited Max into the back room.

God, it seemed so long ago, now. Almost like a different world completely. Robin had been blissfully oblivious to the true terrors of the world, a world where Russians were honestly a joke.

“Well, looks like I’m looking after you, kid.” She muttered. Max swiveled over to look at her, blinked than shouted “Yay!”

Robin sighed. It was going to be a long night.

Robin knew that Steve wouldn’t mind them using his house, but Robin was sure he would mind the puddle of sick on the floor.

Robin, being the stupid-ass lesbian she was, had let Max sleep.

And then the girl threw up.

Max had been sat against the couch, her gaze somewhere far away.

Robin cursed as she cleaned up the sick. Goddamnit.

“You’re lucky I care about you, kid.” Robin muttered. Her mind went back to the events of the party, and thought about how she would help any girl who was drunk being taken into a room.

Except.. would she? If she thought something was up, she would, but what if.. what if she didn’t recognize that the girl was drunk.

Max was very easy to identify when drunk.

Especially now, Robin thinks slightly guiltily. The girl never smiled or laughed anymore, at least not genuinely. 

Except now the girl was constantly giggling at some unknown thing. She was blissfully unaware – or forgetful – of what happened.

“Hey, hey Rob.” Max interrupted her train of thought. “Robin?”

Robin grunted, then sat up. “Yeah?”

“What do you know about Billy?” Max asked, a grin starting to appear on her face. Robin thought back; she’d seen him once during school, just ignored him mainly, but he knew the stories that Steve had told her.

“Not much.” She said. Not lying, but not telling the whole truth, either. “I know that he was a jerk and a bully, but that’s it, really. How about you?”

Robin instantly knew she had struck a sore spot. The grin wiped off her face, and she looked down. Her cheeks were still flushed.

“He was an asshole. Piece of shit.” Max muttered. “Used to- Hurt me. Not much, but like- he’d grab my arm and it would bruise. Though once he broke my arm, and my best friend’s arm.”

Robin winced. “Yikes.”

“But he wasn’t always an asshole. Like- Like when- He taught me how to ride the waves. Surfing.” She clarified, frowning. “But one day he just. Like. Snapped. And then he hated me.”

Max hiccuped, tears starting to collect in her eyes.

Robin wanted to say “No, thank you!”, shut the door and let Max cry it out. She did not want to deal with a mental breakdown from a 15-year-old.

On the other hand, this was probably the closest Max was going to get to her, and honestly Max had the air of needing to get something off of her chest.

It was too late, regardless, because Max was already starting to talk again.

“I think I know why he hated me.” She said, tears getting dangerously close to falling. “He- He saw me with someone.”

Robin subtly rolled her eyes. Of course it was some drama like that.

“I couldn’t help it. She was pretty. Like, really fucking pretty. She had green eyes that shined, and her hair was so brown and shiny, and her lips were right there.” Max said, her voice softer. Robin froze completely, not daring to breathe. “So I kissed her.”

Holy shit.

Holy fucking shit.

Robin just- she just met someone like her.

Someone who liked girls, who wasn’t a boy. She’d never met someone else like that.

“Billy saw us both-” She gestured the allusion of kissing. “And he slapped me to the side, and he grabbed her arm, and twisted until- until-”

Max hiccuped again. Robin wanted to go over there and comfort her, but the shock of finding someone like her made her freeze.

“Everything was shit. For ages. When mom announced that..- that were were gonna move, Billy got really, really, really. Angry.” She said, slurring her vowels together, shaking her head, probably willing herself to stay sober. “And I guess he hated me being happy, be-because he saw me hanging out with Nate-” Max mumbled something about ‘best friend’- “And he pushed me to the ground, shouting. Nate- He tried to. Tried to stop him. Broken arm.”

Max was openly crying now. Robin finally got her bullshit together and walked towards Max, sitting down next to her and putting an arm around her.

“Hey, Max- I- I can’t say I know what you were going through, you know, with Billy and Nate and all that.” Robin inhaled. She was going to regret this. But she didn’t care. “But with the girl part.. I get that. Being afraid of getting found out that you’re different. That you like other people, that you’re not meant to like. Because I- I like girls too.”

Max blinked. “Hey- You know- That’s cool. We’re like the- Girls like girls club.” She said, starting to lean against Robin’s chest. “I like boys too, you know?”

“Huh?” Robin asked, confused.

Max laughed at her surprise. “Yeah, Lucas is really cute.” Her cheeks flushed even more. “He welcomed me when no-one else did- really nice. And cute. Very cute.”

Robin wanted to gag at this cute sappy shit, but held it in.

“But it was El. Fucking- She’s just- just got this- way of making me feel all soft and- and mushy inside.” Max smiled, a soft one. Then she giggled giddily. “I- Don’t really know who’s cuter- Equally cute, I s’pose. But I think I like Lucas more. I know him- I can read him better than El- makes it easier to understand feelings, guess.”

Robin pat her on the arm. “I’m proud of you, kid, for telling me this. That was really brave of you.”

Max smiled sleepily. “Yeah. Yeah, I am pretty brave, aren’t I?”

Before Robin could respond – or even think of a response – Max leaned further into her, then her body went limp.

Robin smiled softly at her, before picking her up (not without difficulty) and brought her into the room that had been a Guest Room, but was practically used all the same with the little gremlins and, of course, Robin herself.

She laid her down on the bed, and smiled at her again.

“Bisexual.” She whispered, before walking out, ready to collect Steve from the party as well.


End file.
